For Dyslexics, A Font And A Dictionary That Are
Meant To Help
November 11, 201412:16 PM ET
The Dyslexie font
uses slight changes between similar letters to help keep dyslexic readers from
confusing them. Dyslexie hide caption
itoggle caption Dyslexie
A designer who has
dyslexia has created a font to help dyslexic readers navigate text, designing
letters in a way that avoids confusion and adds clarity. And in England, two
researchers are compiling a dictionary that favors meaning over alphabetical
order.
Roughly 10 percent
of the world's population is dyslexic. And as NPR's
Nancy Shute reported in 2012, "People with dyslexia are often bright
and verbal, but have trouble with the written word."
The people behind
two new projects hope they can help change that.
Dutch designer
Christian Boer's Dyslexie font has been around for a while, but it's been
getting new attention thanks to being featured in the Istanbul Design Biennial.
The font defaults
to a dark blue color, which Boer's website says "is more pleasant to read
for dyslexics."
"When they're
reading, people with dyslexia often unconsciously switch, rotate and mirror
letters in their minds," Boer tells British design magazine Dezeen.
"Traditional typefaces make this worse, because they base some letter
designs on others, inadvertently creating 'twin letters' for people with
dyslexia."
To avoid
confusion, Boer designed letters that have a heavier bottom half, making it
less likely that a reader might flip them. He also made some openings larger,
and slightly tilted some letters that closely resemble others — such as a
"b" and a "d."
In that sense,
Boer's font uses a similar approach to another font developed with dyslexics in
mind. OpenDyslexic (click here to get font to download) is a free,
open-sourced font that's also designed to help prevent confusion, as NPR
reported last year.
Graphic designer
Christian Boer's Dyslexie font is being featured at the Istanbul Design
Biennial. Dyslexie hide caption
itoggle caption Dyslexie
Dyslexie also incorporates more space
between letters and words, to help prevent a dyslexic reader from seeing a
confused jumble of text.
Boer's font works
with both Apple and Microsoft-based systems; it can also be added to a Web
browser as an extension. The font is free for home users and available for a
fee to schools and businesses.
It's not clear
what font education researchers Neville and Daryl Brown will use for their new
dictionary, which will cater to dyslexic readers' needs. The father-and-son
team say the project builds on decades of research — and the understanding that
the standard dictionary isn't very helpful for dyslexics.
Instead of using a
strict alphabetical order, words in their dictionary will be organized
according to their meanings, as the pair explained in a recent article in British
newspaper the Litchfield
Mercury.
"We teach
literacy using an entirely different method to phonics, instead using the
'morphological approach,' which was developed by my father over 30 years
ago," Daryl Brown says.
So far, they've
organized nearly 50,000 words, sorting them by some 3,700 morphemes.
"For another
example, the traditional dictionary places the words 'signature,' 'resign' and
'assignation' many pages apart," the Mercury reports. "But they are
connected by the common morpheme 'sign,' pronounced differently across the
three words."
The two
researchers recently told BBC
London that they've been working on the dictionary since 1982, when their
research school, Maple Hayes Hall, was founded. They hope to finish the book by
the end of 2015.
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